Salvatore and Lili Katan - August 18, 1981

Getting Married

SK: For me it was very hard work to stay because I don't speak the language...

LK: Well, you picked it up pretty good.

SK: I picked it up because...

LK: I tell you something, after a month he was running his mouth better than I could.

SK: ...??? I saw worser than that and what're they going to do with me? And I used to wear a Russian uniform because I don't have a suit, I don't have nothing. This is what the Russians, they give me. And sometimes the catch you.

LK: When we went to the--you know when ??? When we went with our baby I met accidently a girl whom I knew on the street in Budapest and I stopped her and I asked her--I knew she had a brother--"Would you borrow me a suit for me and a suit for my husband for Sunday for a half an hour?"

SK: A dress for you and a suit for me.

LK: No, a suit...

SK: Suit, whatever.

LK: ...I had a suit too. I said, "Because I'm going to get married," and it just so happened on Sunday afternoon. She said, "Sure, of course." So I made and told her a date where I meet her and she brought the suit for the half an hour Sunday for the--we got marriage.

She Jewish?

LK: Oh, sure. I knew her from before the war.

SK: Now, this ring, I never take from my finger. This is the ring one of her cousin, they give to borrow the ring and then when the wedding was over and I give this suit and everything and I say, "Here, I give you the ring too." He says, "No, just keep it." So that's the only thing I've got from this uncle because it...

LK: Cousin.

SK: Cousin--they were in jewelry--as a matter of fact in New York, too, they, they send the money before the war in New York and they have...

LK: In Budapest they send their money--they were smart people, you know, some people are smart. I have cousins back home and they were in jewelry business but very smart boys. They were always like their mother...

SK: Business, business, business...

LK: Business, okay? So when they smart a little...

SK: They know something is going wrong...

LK: ...that's something's going wrong and they send out money to London--they had two son, they send them there to school just before the Hitler...

SK: Before Hitler comes in.

LK: ...and after the war he went to London and picked up his money. He went to New York...

SK: ???

LK: ...and opened up a jewelry store.

SK: They listen.

LK: Continue, do you know?

Woman: That's music to my ears to hear you speak, Papino, because I don't think...

SK: ???

LK: So, he spoke Spanish so I always spoke Spanish with him and I picked it up so good I tell you that I could go in Spain--I could teach in Spain I was so good at it. Of course, now I forget it little by little ???...

SK: ??? old lady from Salonika...

LK: Mrs. ???, I remember her.

SK: Mrs. ???, rest in peace, she used to tell me--I used to speak the kids--the boys Spanish or Italian...

Do they speak Spanish?

SK: Yeah, she?

Do the boys?

SK: Oh yeah...

LK: Oh, yeah, my--oh, yeah...

SK: ...my boys--the one speaks--is an interpreter for the American Motors.

LK: Yeah, that's why he move to Toledo because, you know, he's very good in...

SK: He's living in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela...

LK: ...he's very good in Spanish. He took it almost AP Spanish for his high school, for his college.

SK: So he know his Spanish. Of course, not the way I talk, the pure Spanish because sometimes I confuse him. He says, "Dad, no it's not that way, okay? That is your Spanish, this is my Spanish." So, that old lady used to say, "Sal..."

LK: Talk English, talk English.

SK: "...talk to the kids English, English." I said, "How I could talk to them in English if I don't know myself what I'm saying myself?" I said, "I'm not worried about them..."

LK: That's right, "I'm worried about myself."

SK: "...when they go on the sidewalk with the other kids to play, they're going to speak English much before I speak English." And sure enough, the boys there come in the home, "Oh, daddy no, you don't say it right. Daddy, you say wrong way there, there..." And, so...